HILO, Hawaii — Kilauea, one of the globe’s most active volcanoes situated on Hawaii’s Big Island, began unleashing lava from its north vent on Wednesday. This latest lava flow is part of an eruption sequence that first started nearly six months ago.
The volcanic activity included lava fountains that shot up to heights exceeding 330 feet (roughly 100 meters), feeding several streams of molten rock. According to scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory of the U.S. Geological Survey, these fountains of lava are expected to climb even higher.
This current event was foreshadowed by a phenomenon known as gas-pistoning on Tuesday. This occurs when gas accumulates at the top of a lava column within a vent.
The observatory explained that gas-pistoning causes lava surfaces to rise in a piston-like motion. Eventually, this built-up gas escapes, causing splatter or lava to erupt, with the molten rock then draining back into the vent, as mentioned on their social media platform.
Occurrences of gas-pistoning were observed up to 10 times per hour. The phenomenon intensified, culminating in a small, sustained dome fountain that began to send flows across the crater floor by the following day.
This marks the 25th eruptive event since Kilauea, located on the island’s southeastern region, initiated its eruption on December 23. The volcano has been alternating between periods of eruption and pause.
Most of these eruptive events have typically discharged lava for about a day or less, with interruption phases generally spanning a few days between each fiery outburst.